and limitations, of a State qualified by its mental and physical endowment to lead and control, as may result in the general good of the States immediately concerned, and of the world at large.

It is interesting, as possibly showing how and when the word "disposition" came to be adopted in the American public law to express the function of the Imperial State in a Federal Empire, to notice that in the Proclamation of Congress of June 12, 1775, appointing Thursday, July 20, 1775, as a day of humiliation and prayer, issued shortly after Lord Chatham's Bill and Burke's and Hartley's resolutions must have reached America, the power of the Deity was described as a "supreme, universal, and superintending providence," and He is called "the Disposer of all events.'

The Proclamation read in part:

As the great Governor of the world, by His supreme and universal providence, not only conducts the course of nature with unerring wisdom and rectitude, but frequently influences the minds of men to serve His wise and gracious purposes by His providential government; and it being at all times our indispensable duty devoutly to acknowledge His superintending providence ; .

This Congress therefore, considering the present critical, alarming and calamitous state of these Colonies, do earnestly recommend that Thursday, the 20th day of July next, be observed by the inhabitants of all the English Colonies on this Continent, as a day of public humiliation and prayer, that we may offer up our joint supplications to the all-wise, omnipotent and merciful Disposer of all events. that all America may soon behold a gracious interposition of Heaven for the redress of her many grievances, the restoration of her invaded rights [and] a reconciliation with the Parent State on terms constitutional and honorable to both.

In the Address to the People of Ireland of July 28, 1775, the Deity was spoken of as "the Supreme Disposer of all human events.

As William Hooper, of North Carolina, was chairman of the Committee which framed this Proclamation and also of that which framed this Address, the honor of having restored to the public law the word "dispose" as signifying the power to adjudicate and execute the judg ment, seems to belong to him.

The final issue between Great Britain and the Colonies was, therefore, generally, whether or not the British Empire was a Federal Empire, and specifically whether or not there was a Constitution of the British Empire, and a law of the British Empire in execution thereof, which were supreme, for Imperial purposes, over the Constitutions and laws of the Imperial State and of all its dependencies.

The Colonies claimed that there was such an Imperial Constitution, and, as it was unwritten, they claimed that it necessarily followed as a corollary, that it was to be adjudicated and declared by the King of Great Britain, as ex officio the Supreme Disposer of the Empire, and was also to be executed by him, in the same capacity, by means of rules and regulations made by him and administrative acts done by and under him; and that the British Parliament, as ex officio the Chief Legislature of the Empire, had also the power, within the sphere allotted to it by the Constitution as so adjudicated and declared, to make rules and regulations, in the form of statutes, in execution of the Constitution.

As Great Britain did not admit that the British Empire was a Federal Empire, and hence did not admit that there was a Constitution of the Empire supreme, for Imperial purposes, over the Constitution of Great Britain, it did not admit the corollary.

CHAPTER XIX

THE AMERICAN EMPIRE PLANNED, 1776

WH

WHEN it is recalled that it was Franklin who made the first draft of Articles of Confederation which was considered by the Congress, it is not surprising to find that it contained provisions establishing an American Empire, in which the American Confederation was to be the Imperial State. It was Franklin who made the original draft of the Plan of Union, which, as has been already noticed, provided for the establishment of an American Empire much more completely and distinctly than it did for the establishment of an American State. He was the foremost expansionist of his times. He published a Plan for Settling Two Colonies West of the Allegheny Mountains, in 1757, and by his Canada Pamphlet in 1762 saved Canada to Great Britain, when men of experience and influence in England, alarmed by the spirit of expansion in America shown by the Plan of Union, were advising that it should be yielded back to France in return for the diminutive, but highly cultivated and productive island of Guadaloupe.

In this first draft, presented to Congress on August 20, 1775, Franklin inserted Articles securing to the Indian tribes the rights of uncivilized States dependent on the Confederation, and providing for the "planting of new colonies, when proper," by the Confederation. By another Article, which showed his remarkable faith in the possibility of the unlimited extension of a Confederation of States acting by a Congress of elected delegates, he provided for receiving into the Confederation, not only all the other British Colonies on the American Continent

(Quebec,-then including Canada and the Northwest Territory, St. John's and Nova Scotia, East and West Florida), but also the West Indies, the Bermudas, and even Ireland!

The Articles of this draft on these subjects read:

Article XI. A perpetual alliance, offensive and defensive, is to be entered into as soon as may be with the Six Nations; their limits to be ascertained and secured to them; their land not to be encroached on, nor any private or Colony purchases made of them hereafter to be held good; nor any contract for lands to be made, but between the Great Council of the Indians at Onondaga and the general Congress. The boundaries and lands of all other Indians shall also be ascertained and secured to them in the same manner, and persons appointed to reside among them in proper districts; and shall take care to prevent injustice in the trade with them; and be enabled at our general expense, by occasional small supplies, to relieve their personal wants and distresses. And all purchases from them shall be by the Congress, for the general advantage and benefit of the United Colonies.

Article V. That the power and duty of the Congress shall extend to the settling all disputes and differences. between Colony and Colony, about limits or any other cause, if such should arise, and the planting of new colonies when proper. The Congress shall also make such general ordinances as, though necessary to the general welfare, particular assemblies cannot be competent to, viz., those that may relate to our general commerce, or general currency; the establishment of posts; and the regulation of our common forces.

Article XIV. Any and every Colony from Great Britain. upon the Continent of North America not at present engaged in our Association, may, upon application and joining the said Association, be received into the Confederation, viz., Ireland, the West India Islands, Quebec, St. John's, Nova Scotia, the Bermudas, and the East and West Floridas; and shall thereupon be entitled to all the advantages of our Union, mutual assistance and commerce.

The draft of Articles of Confederation reported on July 12, 1776, by the committee appointed by Congress for the purpose, consisting of one member from each State, was, as we are told by Madison, and as the Secret Journals state, written by Dickinson. It contained full

and carefully drawn provisions intended to cover all the problems which then confronted the United States, growing out of their relations with external communities subject to their control. These provisions were as follows:

Article XIV. No purchases of lands, hereafter to be made of the Indians, by Colonies or private persons, before the limits of the Colonies are ascertained, to be valid. All purchases of lands not included within those limits, when ascertained, to be made by contracts between the United States assembled, or by persons for that purpose authorized by them, and the Great Councils of the Indians, for the general benefit of all the United Colonies.

Article XVIII. The United States assembled shall have the sole and exclusive right and power of . . . Regulating the trade, and managing all affairs with the Indians: Limiting the bounds of those Colonies which, by Charter or Proclamation, or under any pretence, are said to extend to the South Sea; and ascertaining the bounds of any other Colony that appear to be indeterminate: Assigning territories for new colonies; either in lands to be separated from Colonies and heretofore purchased or obtained by the Crown of Great Britain from the Indians, or hereafter to be purchased or obtained from them: Disposing of all such lands for the general benefit of all the United Colonies: Ascertaining boundaries in such new colonies within which forms of government are to be established on the principies of liberty.

Article XX. Canada, acceding to this Confederation, and entirely joining in the measures of the United Colonies, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of the Union. But no other Colony shall be admitted into the same unless such admission be agreed to by the delegates of nine Colonies.